ONE of the most famous supporters of Scottish independence has recommended getting high on cannabis as a way of coping with political "idiocy".

Actor Brian Cox said: “It’s absolutely great and I recommend it to everyone - get stoned!”

The Herald: Camley's cartoon: Get stoned to cope with political 'idiocy'.Camley's cartoon: Get stoned to cope with political 'idiocy'.

The Dundee-born star, who helped launch the first independence campaign in 2012 and last week called for Indyref2, revealed his long-term use of the drug in a Guardian interview.

Referring to the political situation in both the US and UK, he said: “It does make the politics easier to bear. It’s a way of dealing with idiocy.”

READ MORE: Hollywood actor Brian Cox calls for second Scottish independence referendum 

The 73-year-old, who last week won a best actor Golden Globe for his lead role in the TV drama Succession, said he had been getting stoned for more than two decades.

He said he had been “very against it” before that.

“Then when I was 50, I realised I missed out on what was going on with young people because I was so square, and I was working so hard, I needed something to relax.

“So I discovered the wonderful world of cannabis.”

Mr Cox, a frequent guest on Alex Salmond’s RT TV show, is one of the most prominent supporters of the Yes movement.

Last week he won a Golden Globe for best actor in the TV drama Succession, in which he plays a monstrous media mogul at the head of a feuding family.

He recently called for a second referendum on Scottish independence in the wake of the SNP’s gains in the general election.

READ MORE: Golden Globes: Brian Cox and Krysty Wilson-Cairns celebrate 

He said: "I would think we need to look at it, I think we need a referendum and see what we think. We've been sidelined for so long and treated really not very well. And not taken very seriously."

The star of Hollywood films including Manhunter, Troy and the Bourne Identity was a Labour supporter for many years and campaigned for it in the 2007 Holyrood election.

However, he backed the SNP in 2011 and left Labour in 2015 to join the SNP.

Speaking on Trump and Johnson, the Dundee-born actor said: "All of our moral certainties have gone by the wayside with the elections, with the Etonian twit in the UK and the pink Pinocchio in the White House, and you feel you can’t do anything about it. 

"It’s like with the impeachment: it’s so clear that [Trump] is a bad man, but the Republican senators say: ‘No, it’s not this, it’s that’, but it’s all b******s. He’s a horrible human being and he’s f*****g everything up and he doesn’t give a s**t."